Fedora Wallpaper

Creating the default wallpaper for each Fedora release is one of the team’s flagship projects. A release is every 6 months, so a wallpaper is also produced every 6 months. It is a large project and the team is always at some stage within the wallpaper creation process.

Inspiration and Themes

Each release wallpaper is inspired by a person in STEM or a theme that corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. That letter works its way through the alphabet with each release. The theme is decided early in the release cycle through a community vote and guides the visual direction for all wallpaper contributions.

For reference, take a look at past wallpapers to understand the style and quality expected:

Process

At the start of every release wallpaper project, an epic is created on the Design Team’s Forge ticket queue. The wallpaper is typically developed over a 6-month window within the release cycle. You can find the an example of the schedule at: https://fedorapeople.org/groups/schedule/f-44/f-44-key-tasks.html

Attached to the epic are tickets for each step needed to complete the wallpaper:

  1. Inspiration Vote — Create a list of inspirational figures or themes matching the current letter, run a community vote on Fedora Discussion, and announce the winner.

  2. Mindmap — Schedule, announce, and run a wallpaper mindmap session to explore visual directions. Send a call for contributors.

  3. Sketches & Rough Drafts — Designers create sketches and visuals inspired by the mindmap. Anyone in the Fedora community is welcome and encouraged to contribute to this phase.

  4. Beta Wallpaper — A beta version of the wallpaper is produced and shared for feedback.

  5. Final Wallpaper — The wallpaper is refined to final quality based on feedback. The team reviews it at various resolutions and aspect ratios to make sure it works well everywhere. Source files are committed to the release artwork repository.

Check out this blog post to see the process for the F43 Wallpaper.

How to Contribute

All wallpaper contributions happen in an epic on the Fedora Design Team’s Forge. If you would like to contribute, please follow these guidelines:

  • The recommended wallpaper dimensions are 6144 × 6144px (minimum 4096 × 4096px).

  • Use only open-source programs such as Blender, Krita, Inkscape, GIMP, etc.

  • Please post both a screenshot or bitmap export of your work and the source file. For example, post both a .blend Blender file and a PNG render so others can see and build on what you did.

  • Attachments work best in comments. Try to include everything in a single comment to keep the discussion organized.

  • Visuals should be inspired by the themes chosen for that release.

Supplemental Wallpapers

Each Fedora release used to include a collection of selected wallpapers contributed by the Fedora community. There was a submission and evaluation process managed by the Fedora Design team. Unfortunately due to limitation in the team’s time, we no longer manage the supplemental wallpaper process.

Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›